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THROUGH     THE     STEREOSCOPE 


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UNDERWOOD  &  UNDERWOOD 
JSew  York  and  London 

487 


Copyright, 
By  UNDERWOOD  &  UNDERWOOD 

New  York  and  London 
[Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall] 


Stereographs  copyrighted  in  the  United  States 
and  foreign  countries 

MAP  SYSTEM 

Patented  in  the  United  States,  August  21,  xooo 
Patented  in  Great  Britain,  March  22,  1900 
Patented  in  France,  March  26,  1900.    S.  G.  D.  G 
Switzerland,  X  Patent  Nr.  21,211 
Patents  applied  for  in  other  countries 


All  rights  reservtd 


Printed  in  th,»  United  States 


PAGE 

Looking  through  the  Stereographs 5 

How  the  Cafion  came  to  be 11 

How  the  Cafion  was  explored 18 

Books  to  read 29 

Methods .  30 


SEEING  THE 


1  A  wonder  to  the  primitive  inhabitants — Santa  Fe 
train  crossing  Canon  Diablo 32 

2  From  Red  to  San  Francisco  Mountains — a  woody 
wilderness  in  sun-kissed  Arizona 33 

3  Blown  asunder  by  volcanic  energies — Red  Mountain, 

an  extinct  volcano 35 

4  Labyrinthine  ways  through  the  lava-ash  formations, 
Red  Mountain  crater 37 

5  "The  sinuous  Colorado,  yellow  as  the  Tiber,"  north 
from  Bissell's  Point 38 

6  Among  the  the  buttes,  Red  Cafion  trail 40 

7  Fathoming  the    Depth  of  a  vanished  sea— Grand 
Cafion  from  Hance's  Cove 42 

8  Descending  Grand  View  trail 44 

9  Dendritic  stalagmites  in  a  limestone  cave 47 

10  Angels'  Gateway  and  Newberry  Terrace  fromCot- 
tonwood  Spring 48 

11  Beside  the  Colorado,  looking  up  to  Zoroaster  Tower 
from  Pipe  Creek , 51 

12  Down  the  Granite  gorge  of  the  Colorado  (1200  feet 
deep)  from  Pyrites  Point 53 

13  Prospecting  for  gold— Indian  Garden  Creek 54 

14  Rounding  "  Cape  Horn  "  on  the  Bright  Angel  trail. .    56 

15  Thomas  Moran,   America's  greatest  scenic  artist, 
sketching  at  Bright  Angel  Cove 57 

16  "Over   all    broods    a  solem    silence  "—Sunset   at 
O'Neill's  Point. . . 59 

17  Overlooking  nature's  greatest  amphitheatre— from 
Rowe's  Point,  N.  W 60 

18  On  the  brink,  one  mile  above  the  river— N.  W.  from 
Rowe's  Point 02 


LOOKING    THROUGH    STEREO- 
GRAPHS 

Stereoscopic  photographs  or  stereo- 
graphs are  not  just  "  little  pictures." 
When  a  stereograph  is  held  in  the  hand 
and  looked  at  with  the  unaided  eye  it 
seems  to  the  inexperienced  observer  like 
a  pair  of  photographs  just  alike,  mounted 
side  by  side  on  one  card.  The  fact  is  that 
the  two  parts  are  not  alike — the  negatives 
were  taken  at  the  same  instant,  but  with 
two  different  lenses,  set  side  by  side  in 
the  camera  about  as  far  apart  as  a  man's 
two  eyes. 

Now  a  man's  two  eyes  do  not  give  him 
exactly  duplicate  reports  in  regard  to  any 
solid  object  at  which  he  looks.  You  can 
easily  prove  this  for  yourself.  Stretch 
out  your  own  right  arm  at  full  length 
exactly  in  front  of  you,  so  that  the  out- 
spread hand  is  seen  edge-wise  opposite 
your  face.  Close  the  left  eye  and  look 
only  with  the  right ;  you  see  the  edge  of 
your  hand  and  a  bit  around  on  the  back 
of  your  hand.  Keep  the  position  un- 
changed, but  close  the  right  eye  and  look 
only  with  the  left;  this  time  you  see  the 
edge  and  a  part  of  the  palm.  Now  look 


6  The  Grand  Canon 

with  both  eyes  at  once.  You  will  see  with 
the  right  eye  a  part  of  the  right  side,  with 
the  left  a  part  of  the  left  side ;  the  result 
is  that  you  will  practically  see  part  way 
around  the  hand,  and  that  is  what  makes 
it  look  solid  rather  than  flat  or  like  a 
mere  shadow  on  paper. 

Stereoscopic  photography  is  based  on 
this  principle  of  two-eye  vision.  One  lens 
of  the  stereoscopic  camera  takes  in  just 
what  a  man's  right  eye  would  see  if  he 
occupied  the  camera's  place.  The  other 
lens  takes  in  exactly  what  the  man's  left 
eye  would  see  at  the  same  instant.  When 
the  two  resulting  prints  are  placed  before 
the  oblique-set  lenses  of  the  stereoscope, 
the  impressions  they  give  are  combined 
into  one.  You  see  everything  standing 
out  solid  with  space  around  it,  exactly  as 
you  would  see  it  if  you  were  bodily  pres- 
ent on  the  spot,  lacking  only  the  element 
of  color. 

Try  one  more  experiment  to  see  how 
much  difference  there  is  between  an  ordi- 
nary "  picture,"  such  as  can  be  taken  with 
one  lens  and  seen  with  one  eye,  and  a 
stereograph  of  the  same  place.  Find  No. 
17  in  this  series — "  Overlooking  Na- 
ture's greatest  amphitheatre."  Cover 
one  side  with  your  hand  or  with  this 
book,  and  look  at  the  other  side,  not 
using  the  stereoscope.  It  is  interesting 


of  Arizona  7 

— yes,  that  scenery  must  be  grand,  so 
you  say.  Now  place  the  stereograph  in 
the  rack,  adjust  it  at  the  proper  distance 
for  your  eyes  and  look  at  it  through 
the  stereoscopic  lenses.  Does  it  not  make 
you  almost  draw  back  with  a  shock  of 
surprise?  You  feel  the  dizzy  space  be- 
low that  perilously  overhanging  shelf, 
from  which  the  men  are  looking  off; 
you  almost  hold  your  breath  as  you  peer 
down  towards  the  invisible  bottom  of 
the  gorge. 

The  difference  between  a  mere  pic- 
ture and  a  stereograph  is  probably  clear 
to  you  now. 

It  seems  to  some  people  too  wonderful 
for  belief  that  stereographs  should  give 
them  the  impression  of  everything  in  the 
full  size  of  the  actual,  existing  world,  yet 
this  also  is  true.  Look  out  from  your 
own  window,  six  or  eight  feet  distant, 
at  a  man  in  the  street  forty  feet  away; 
how  much  space  on  the  window-glass  is 
actually  occupied  by  his  figure  ?  Only  a 
fraction  of  an  inch !  A  visiting  card  held 
in  your  own  hand  at  arm's  length  might 
easily  cover  him  from  sight.  That  same 
small  card  might  cover  a  tall  building, 
or  even  hide  a  distant  mountain,  for  a 
small  thing  near  the  eyes  naturally  fills 
the  same  space  as  a  much  larger  thing 
farther  away.  This  fact  of  optics  has 


8  The.    Grand  Canon 

also  to  do  with  the  service  rendered 
by  stereographs,  for  the  stereoscopic 
prints,  when  viewed  through  the  oblique, 
set  lenses  of  the  stereoscope,  become  like 
so  many  windows  through  which  you  can 
see  the  real  things,  full  size,  off  at  the 
distance  where  they  actually  were  in  fact, 
when  confronted  by  the  sensitized  plates 
of  the  camera. 

The  mechanical  construction  of  the 
stereoscope  in  itself  helps  one  to  see 
everything  in  full  size  with  the  effect  of 
real  presence  on  the  spot.  The  hood  which 
fits  against  the  forehead,  shutting  off  as 
it  does  all  sight  of  the  things  directly 
surrounding  you  as  you  sit  in  your  own 
chair,  makes  it  much  easier  for  you  to 
forget  that  chair  and  the  floor  and  the 
walls  of  your  room — to  think  only  of  the 
other  place  at  which  you  are  looking,  and 
to  feel  yourself  actually  there  on  the  spot. 

But  in  order  to  have  a  thoroughly  satis- 
factory sense  of  location  on  the  spot  you 
must  know  where  "  there "  is ;  lacking 
such  knowledge  you  still  remain  in  the 
helpless  condition  of  a  man  who  has  been 
carried  somewhere  blindfolded  or  asleep 
and  who  opens  his  eyes  on  a  place 
whose  identity  is  unknown.  To  meet  the 
need  in  this  line  you  will  find  the  special, 
patent  maps  included  in  this  pamphlet 
quite  invaluable.  Do  not  fail  to  study 


/ 


of  Arizona  9 

the  maps;  it  will  repay  you  tenfold  for 
the  slight  exertion.  The  encircled  figures 
in  red  show  exactly  where  you  are  stand- 
ing in  each  case.  The  red  lines  diverging 
V  fashion  from  these  points  show  in 
what  direction  you  are  looking. 

You  will  find  it  well  worth  all  the 
trouble  it  costs  to  pause  at  each  stand- 
point and  think  definitely  just  where  you 
are  and  not  only  what  is  before  you,  but 
also  (wherever  possible)  what  is  behind 
you,  and  what  lies  off  at  your  left  and 
your  right  beyond  the  limits  of  your  act- 
ual vision.  This  aids  immensely  if  you 
want  really  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the 
place  in  question.  If  you  take  pains  to 
do  all  this,  you  can  certainly  obtain  a  con- 
siderable measure  of  the  very  same  feel-- 
ings that  you  would  have  if  you  were 
bodily  on  the  spot — the  difference  will  be 
only  as  to  the  degree  and  intensity  of  feel- 
ing, not  in  regard  to  the  kind  of  feeling. 

Do  not  hurry.  Tourists  often  lose  half 
the  meaning  and  half  the  pleasure  of  a 
journey  because  of  their  nervous  way  of 
scampering  from  one  sight  to  another 
without  stopping  to  think  about  what  they 
see.  To  some  extent  this  mistake  can 
hardly  be  avoided  when  stages  and  trains 
start  at  certain  moments  and  excursion 
tickets  have  limited  dates.  But  when  you 
are  looking  at  the  country  through  stere- 


10  The  Grand  Canon  of  Arizona 

ographs,  you  can  take  your  time  about  it. 
You  can  linger  long  enough  in  any  one 
spot  so  that  the  beauty  and  the  meaning 
of  what  you  see  may  be  mentally  digested. 
Best  of  all,  you  can  keep  going  over  and 
over  again  to  any  place  which  makes  a 
particularly  strong  appeal  to  you ;  you  can 
gradually  grow  as  familiar  with  it  as  if 
it  were  close  by  your  home. 


HOW  THE  CANON  CAME  TO  BE 

A  full  account  of  the  geologic  history 
of  the  Canon  would  fill  several  bulky  vol- 
umes, but  this  is  the  story  in  brief. 

Ages  upon  ages  ago,  before  the  cooling 
crust  that  makes  the  earth's  surface  was 
nearly  as  thick  as  it  is  now,  a  portion  of 
it,  including  northern  Arizona,  did  not 
stand  at  this  present  high  level ;  it  was 
lower  by  several  thousand  feet,  so  low 
in  fact,  that  the  waters  of  the  sea  had 
found  and  filled  its  deep  hollow.  For 
ages  and  ages  the  bare  lands  around  it 
were  subjected  to  the  wear  and  tear  of 
primeval  storms  and  floods,  and  nameless 
rivers  bore  their  waste  down  to  this  part 
of  the  sea  in  the  form  of  sand  and  gravel. 
Through  immeasurably  long  periods  the 
old  ocean-bed  kept  accumulating  layer 
after  layer  of  sediment  so  deposited. 

Then,  after  a  time,  some  disturbance 
within  the  fiery  interior  of  the  earth  led 
to  a  change  in  this  part  of  its  surface, 
pushing  it  outward — i.e.  upward — and 
transforming  the  one  time  ocean-bed  into 
dry  land.  The  effect  of  the  enormous 
weight  of  the  superimposed  masses  of 
sediment,  combined  with  the  effect  of 


12  The  Grand  Canon 

heat  from  below,  had  compacted  and 
hardened  the  ancient  layers  of  ocean  mud 
and  transformed  them  into  solid  strata  of 
rock.  When  these  rock  -  strata  were 
pushed  up  by  volcanic  forces  from  the 
interior,  some  of  them  were  broken  apart 
and  tilted  into  other  than  horizontal  posi- 
tions. So  exposed  and,  in  parts,  so 
broken,  the  stratified  rocks  took  their  turn 
at  being  weathered  and  worn  away  by 
river  currents  that  tore  along  over  them. 

Still  later  (there  is  ample  ocular  evi- 
dence for  all  this  in  the  geologist's  eyes), 
some  further  seismic  disturbance  caused 
all  this  region  to  settle  again,  sinking  once 
more  below  ocean-level  and  becoming  re- 
flooded  by  prehistoric  seas.  Again  it  lay 
below  the  waters,  receiving  tribute  of 
sedimentary  deposits,  this  time  not  merely 
of  inorganic  rock-waste,  but  also  of  soil, 
for  land  vegetation  was  flourishing 
rankly  under  new  climatic  conditions. 

And  yet  all  this  was  but  a  preliminary 
part  of  the  experience  of  this  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface. 

A  second  time  this  part  of  the  still 
yielding  crust  was  readjusted  as  the  result 
of  interior  pressure,  being  pushed  up  and 
out  till  its  bulging  brought  it  again  above 
the  sea-level,  and  it  played  for  a  second 
time  the  role  of  dry  land.  When  it  thus 
rose  again,  its  latest  acquisitions  in  the 


of  Arizona  13 

4 

form  of  sedimentary  linings  had  become 
compressed  and  hardened  into  stratified 
rock,  just  as  was  the  case  with  the  earlier 
deposits,  thougjh  the  materal  compressed 
was  distinctly  different  in  character. 

A  huge  inland  sea  above  spilled  over 
during  these  changes  of  level.  Its  waters, 
hurrying  down  to  the  main  ocean,  wore 
a  channel  in  the  rock-surfaces  over 
which  they  flowed.  The  corrasive  floods, 
loaded  with  sharp  fragments  of  gravelly 
sediment,  were  great  and  strong ;  they  cut 
their  way  deeper  and  deeper  as  they  were 
pushed  to  their  work  by  other  floods  that 
crowded  fast  upon  them  from  behind.  All 
this  time  while  the  pouring,  tearing,  rag- 
ing outlet  of  the  inland  sea  was  wearing 
gorges  through  the  rocks,  the  plateau  as 
a  whole  was  rising,  ahd  the  corrading 
stream,  acquiring  still  greater  momen- 
tum and  cutting  power,  sawed  away  at  the 
rocks  that  steadily  rose  against  its  blade. 
It  cut  deeper  and  deeper  and  deeper, 
while  the  forces  of  erosion  attacked 
the  side  walls.  Century  after  century,  the 
cutting  went  on;  sometimes  the  upward 
push  of  the  rocky  surface  lessened  for 
a  while ;  again  it  increased.  Now  and 
again  the  down-pouring  river  met  with 
more  resistance  in  some  section  of  its 
banks  of  stone,  and  particularly  stubborn 
cores  of  ancient  rock  were  left  only  par- 


14  The  Grand  Canon 

tially  cut  away,  the  river  not  having  had 
quite  time  enough  to  conquer  them  before 
its  watery  ammunition  began  to  fail. 
Those  obstinate  remnants,  all  cut  and 
carved  by  the  long  continued  persistence 
of  the  waters  are  what  are  known  to-day 
as  buttes,  projecting  from  the  jagged 
walls  of  the  ancient  gorge. 

During  the  great  glacial  period  the 
general  topography  of  this  region  must 
have  been  approximately  the  same  as 
now,  and  the  floods  fed  by  the  melting 
ice  fields  of  the  mountain  tops  must  have 
kept  this  huge  river-bed  full  of  roaring 
waters.  Tributary  streams  having  their 
chief  development  during  the  ice  age,  are 
credited  with  much  of  the  carving  of  the 
side  canons ;  certainly  there  is  not  now  a 
volume  of  water  commensurate  with  the 
present  magnitude  of  their  sculptured 
gorges,  though  time  is  long  and  erosion 
unceasing. 

Dellenbaugh*  says :  "  The  Grand  Can- 
yon may  be  likened  to  an  inverted  moun- 
tain range.  Imagine  a  great  mountain 
chain  cast  upside  down  in  plaster.  Then 
all  the  former  edges  and  spurs  of  the 
range  become  tributary  canyons  and 
gulches  running  back  twenty  or  thirty 
miles  into  the  surrounding  country, 

*  F.  S.  Dellenbaugh  :  Romance  of  the  Colorado 
River,  p.  40. 


of  Arizona  15 

growing  shallower  and  shallower  as  the 
distance  increases  from  the  central  core, 
just  as  the  great  spurs  and  ridges  of  a 
mountain  range,  descending,  melt  finally 
into  the  plain." 

The  inland  sea  whose  outlet  probably 
began  the  stupendous  gorges  of  this  river 
is  no  longer  in  existence.  The  vast  north- 
ern ice-fields,  whose  melting  deepened  it 
with  their  summer  freshets,  are  a  thing  of 
the  far-distant  past.  Only  the  melting 
snows  and  pouring  rains  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region  between  here  and  Yel- 
lowstone Park  now  contribute  to  the 
stream  whose  far-back  ancestors  did  such 
mighty  execution.  The  Colorado  River 
of  to-day,  the  marriage  of  the  Green  and 
the  Grand,  is,  however,  no  ignoble 
stream.  Fremont's  Peak,  where  the 
Green  River  begins,  stands  13,790  feet 
above  sea-level ;  the  river  flows  two  thou- 
sand miles,  from  the  Wind  River  moun- 
tains in  northwestern  Wyoming  to  the 
Gulf  of  California;  and  it  drains  an  area 
equal  to  that  of  Minnesota,  Wisconsin, 
Illinois,  Iowa  and  Missouri.  Here  in  the 
Canon  it  is  from  one  to  five  or  six  hun- 
dred feet  wide;  its  current  is  of  terrific 
swiftness  and  great  depth;  yet,  with  all 
its  noble  dimensions,  it  is  only  a  playful 
infant  in  comparison  with  the  ancestral 
floods  that  tore  out  this  stupendous  chasm 


16  The  Grand  Canon 

on  their  stern  and  ferocious  progress 
down  to  the  Peaceful  Sea! 

The  great  width  of  the  outer  canon 
from  rim  to  rim  (in  several  places  twelve 
to  fourteen  miles)  is,  of  course,  due  in 
part  to  the  action  of  rain,  frost  and  wind 
(the  forces  of  erosion),  as  well  as  to  the 
work  of  running  water  (the  force  of  cor- 
rasion).  In  some  places  currents  of 
water  wore  away  softer  strata  low  down 
in  the  bounding  walls,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  so  under-cut  the  more  obstinate 
tipper  strata  that  the  latter  were  dragged 
down  by  their  own  weight,  tearing  huge 
sections  out  of  the  walls  and  thus  widen- 
ing the  river  bed  as  a  whole. 

Figures  taken  by  themselves  mean 
little,  but  kept  in  mind  when  one  is  see- 
ing the  facts,  mean  a  great  deal. 

Where  the  Little  Colorado  enters,  some 
fifteen  miles  above  Bissell's  Point,  the 
present  bed  of  the  stream  is  2,690  feet 
above  sea-level.  Through  the  granite 
gorge  below  Hance's  Point  and  the  Grand 
View  Trail,  it  lowers  rapidly,  in  one 
stretch  of  ten  miles  falling  210  feet.  At 
the  junction  of  the  Kanab,  below  the  best 
known  part  of  the  Canon,  the  river  bed 
is  only  1,800  feet  above  the  sea,  i.e.,  it 
falls  890  feet  during  its  journey  from  the 
Little  Colorado  to  the  Kanab.  The  aver- 
age depth  of  the  entire  gorge  is  over  4,000 


of  Arizona  17 

feet;  at  Hance's  Cove  and  several  other 
points  the  actual  vertical  depth  reaches 
nearly  6,000  feet ;  the  cut  of  the  river  be- 
low Hance's  Cove  lays  bare  successive 
strata  of  rock  representing  successively 
older  and  older  geologic  ages,  and  goes 
down  through  all  those  enwrapping  lay- 
ers of  the  earth's  surface  to  the  inner  core 
of  the  globe — metamorphic  rock,  the  pri- 
meval stuff  of  the  world. 

C.  E.  Dutton,*  author  of  the  chief  Gov- 
ernment documents  regarding  the  geol- 
ogy of  the  Canon,  enumerates  the  rock- 
strata  laid  bare — beginning  at  the  rim — 
as  follows : 

1.  Cherty  limestone,  240  feet. 

2.  Upper  Aubrey  limestone,  320  feet. 

3.  Cross-bedded  sandstone,  380  feet. 

4.  Lower  Aubrey  sandstone,  950  feet. 

5.  Upper  red-wall  sandstone,  400  feet. 

6.  Red-wall  limestone,  1,500  feet. 

7.  Lower  carboniferous  sandstone,  550 
feet. 

8.  Quartzite    base    of    Carboniferous, 
1 80  feet. 

9.  Archaean. 

*  C.  E.  Dtitton  :  Tertiary  History  of  the  Grand 
Canyon  District. 

The  Physical  Geology  of  the  Grand  Canyon 
District. 


HOW  THE  CANON  WAS  EXPLORED 

In  comparison  with  the  long  ages 
which  it  took  to  make  the  Canon,  men's 
acquaintance  with  it  is  all  very  brief ;  and 
yet  even  that  began  longer  ago  than  his- 
tory can  reach.  In  a  gulch  a  little  way 
above  Bright  Angel  Creek  there  are  ruins 
of  stone  houses,  built  evidently  by  Indians, 
akin  to  those  who  now  build  similar 
homes  over  on  the  mesas  of  the  Painted 
Desert  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the 
State.  At  Moran  Point  there  are  remains 
of  curious  old  stone  dwellings,  evidently 
the  abandoned  homes  of  a  similar  tribe. 
Remains  of  the  same  kind  exist  in  various 
parts  of  the  bottom  of  the  Grand  Canon, 
and  may  be  discovered  along  the  north- 
ern rim  and  in  the  side  canons.  They 
are  also  found  in  all  the  other  canons  of 
the  Colorado,  above.  Down  in  the  deep 
gorge  of  Havasupai  Creek,  a  tributary  of 
the  Grand  Canon,  eleven  miles  at  the 
west,  the  Havasupais  live  to-day.  It  is 
difficult  to  assign  any  definite  date  to  the 
abandoned  stone  houses  down  inside  the 
canon,  but  it  seems  probable  that  the 
Indians  went  to  live  in  such  nearly  in- 
accessible spots  chiefly  as  a  means  of 


The  Grand  Canon  of  Arizona  19 

self-protection  against  enemies.  Their 
migration  here  may  have  been  caused  by 
inter-tribal  feuds,  or  it  may  have  been 
partly  a  consequence  of  northward  move- 
ments on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  con- 
querors of  southern  and  central  Mexico. 
(All  this  region,  it  will  be  remembered, 
was  until  1848  a  part  of  Mexico.)  About 
1530  it  is  certain  that  the  Spanish  had 
been  told  great  tales  about  the  existence 
of  rich  towns  somewhere  up  here  full  of 
treasures  worth  capture.  It  was  in  1540 
that  an  exploring  party,  under  Coronado, 
sent  by  the  Spanish  viceroy  Mendoza, 
reached  certain  Indian  villages  about 
twenty  days'  journey  from  here,  and  the 
natives  took  them  to  see  what  the  Span- 
ish captain,  Cardenas,*  afterwards  de- 
scribed as  a  marvellous  river-gorge.  The 
accounts  of  the  journey  are  so  meagre 
and  vague  that  it  is  impossible  to  be  sure 
just  where  the  Spaniards  got  their  first 
sight  of  the  world's  wonder ;  some 
authorities  think  it  was  not  far  from  the 
head  of  the  present  Bright  Angel  Trail 
(see  stereograph  15)  ;  some  think  it  must 
have  been  considerably  farther  down- 
river^ When  the  expedition  went  back 

*  George  Parker  Winship  :  The  Journey  of  Cor- 
onado  p.  35. 

f  F.  S.  Dellenbaugh :  The  Romance  of  the 
Colorado  River,  Ch.  II. 


20  The  Grand  Canon 

to  Mexico,  it  was  reported  that  a  river 
had  been  seen  with  banks  three  or  four 
leagues  apart,  and  with  queerly  shaped 
buttes  in  the  bank  taller  than  the  great 
tower  of  Seville ;  a  river  with  walls  so 
deep  that  the  current,  half  a  league  wide, 
looked  like  a  mere  brook  in  the  distance 
below.  It  was  a  marvellous  story  and, 
no  doubt,  found  ready  listeners;  but  the 
Spaniards  were  more  interested  in  gold 
and  silver  than  in  scenery,  and  they 
allowed  the  travellers'  tale  to  die  into 
mere  tradition,  interesting  enough,  but  tc 
them  not  especially  worth  while. 

The  next  white  people  to  see  the  canon 
were  some  of  the  Franciscan  priests  who 
came  out  in  the  wilderness  from  Mexico, 
to  find  where  the  Indians  lived  between 
the  Rio  Grande  settlements  and  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  to  bring  them  the  message  of 
the  Christian  religion.  In  1776,  Father 
Garces  visited  the  Havasupais  and 
then  went  on  across  the  desert  plateau 
south  of  the  Grand  Canon,  climbed  down 
and  up  the  steeps  of  the  canon  of  the 
Little  Colorado  and  went  off  northeast 
across  the  Painted  Desert  to  Oraibi. 

He  did  not  get  a  good  look  into  the 
depths  of  the  larger  canon,  but  he  did 
record  in  his  diary  of  the  Little  Colorado : 
"  The  bed  of  this  river  as  far  as  the  con- 
fluence is  a  trough  of  solid  rock,  very 


of  Arizona  21 

profound,  and  wide  about  a  stone's 
throw." 

Later  in  the  same  year  another 
Franciscan  father  named  Escalante  en- 
deavored to  explore  a  route  to  the  Mis- 
sion of  Monterey  from  Santa  Fe.  He 
led  his  party  north,  almost  to  the  shore 
of  Salt  Lake,  then  turned  southwest 
about  as  far  as  the  present  town  of  St. 
George.  Fearing  Monterey  could  not  be 
reached  before  winter  set  in,  he  turned 
east  and  attempted  to  cross  the  Colorado. 
The  grandeur  of  the  gorges  in  that  part 
of  the  river  was  tragic  for  the  Padre's 
expedition;  twelve  days  they  wandered 
along  the  edges  of  giant  cliffs,  painfully 
crawling  down  and  wearily  dragging 
themselves  up  again  till  their  provisions 
were  exhausted  and  they  were  forced  to 
eat  some  of  their  worn-out  horses.  They 
succeeded  finally  in  crossing  about  thirty- 
five  miles  above  Lee  Ferry — as  the  river 
runs — about  fourteen  in  a  straight  line. 

After  the  famous  Lewis-and-Clark  ex- 
pedition from  St.  Louis  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia  in  1804-6,  hunters  and 
trappers  began  to  push  out  into  the 
wilderness  in  this  direction.  In  1826,  a 
party  of  trappers  under  a  leader  named 
Pattie  came  across-country  from  the  Gila 
River,  reached  the  Grand  Canon  at  its 
foot,  and  followed  along  near  the  rim  for 


22  The  Grand  Canon 

a  considerable  distance.  Pattie  after- 
wards wrote  an  account  of  the  journey, 
giving  his  impressions  of  the  river-rim 
"as  "  horrid  mountains  which  so  cage  it 
up  as  to  deprive  all  human  beings  of  the 
ability  to  descend  its  banks  and  make  use 
of  its  waters.  No  mortal  has  the  power," 
so  he  said,  "  of  describing  the  pleasure 
I  felt  when  I  could  once  more  reach  the 
banks  of  the  river." 

In  Fremont's  time,  when  much  of  the 
West  was  scientifically  examined,  the 
Grand  Canon  was  still  known  only  by 
hazy  and  terrifying  report.  Three  parties 
had,  indeed,  attempted  to  descend  the 
upper  river  in  boats,  but  their  expeditions 
met  with  disaster.  Fremont  himself, 
with  all  his  daring,  was  satisfied  merely 
to  look  at  some  of  the  upper  canons 
(above  the  confluence  of  the  Yampa) 
from  the  rim,  and  reported  "  the  country 
below  is  said  to  assume  a  very  rugged 
character,  the  river  and  its  affluents  pass- 
ing through  canons  which  forbid  all  ac- 
cess to  the  water." 

It  was  not  until  1869  that  white  men 
actually  passed  through  the  fearful  deeps 
of  the  Grand  Canon  and  lived  to  tell  the 
tale.  Major  John  W.  Powell,  a  veteran  of 
the  Civil  War,  organized  and  successfully 
carried  through  the  first  serious  scien- 
tific attempt  to  explore  the  awful 


of  Arizona  23 

gorge  on  the  river-waters.*  He  had  four 
boats  specially  built  for  the  expedition, 
each  planned  with  water-tight  compart- 
ments and,  while  as  strong  as  possible, 
light  enough  to  be  carried  by  four  men. 
Ten  men  made  up  his  party.  They  took 
with  them  provisions  for  ten  months,  but 
expected  to  be  absent  much  longer,  in- 
tending to  add  to  this  stock  by  killing 
game  along  the  way.  Clothing,  ammuni- 
tion, tools  and  a  good  equipment  of  in- 
struments for  making  scientific  observa- 
tions, sextants,  compasses,  barometers, 
thermometers,  etc.,  were  also  carried. 
The  cargo  was  carefully  divided  between 
the  boats  in  such  a  way  that  no  essential 
item  would  be  entirely  lost  if  any  par- 
ticular boat  should  be  wrecked. 

Funds  for  the  expedition  were  fur- 
nished by  the  Illinois  Industrial  Uni- 
versity and  the  Chicago  Academy  of 
Sciences.  The  boats  started  from  the 
little  station  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road where  the  tracks  cross  Green  River. 

An  old  Indian  told  them  of  the  expe- 
rience of  one  of  his  tribe  in  attempting  to 
pass  through  one  of  the  canons  in  a 
canoe :  "  Rocks  h-e-a-p  h-e-a-p  high ; 

*  Major  Powell  was  the  founder  of  the  Bureau  of 
American  Ethnology  and  director  until  his  death  in 
1902.  He  was  also  for  many  years  director  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey. 


24  The  Grand  Canon 

water  go  h-oo-woogh ;  h-oo-woogh ; 
water-pony  heap  buck ;  water  catch  'em ; 
no  see  'em  Injun  any  more!  No  see  um 
squaw  any  more ;  no  see  um  papoose  any 
more ! "  Thus  the  whole  family  was 
wiped  out. 

It  was  an  awesome  experience,  not  only 
full  of  definite,  explicit  dangers  to  be 
battled  with  in  sternly  practical  fashion, 
day  after  day,  but  also  colored  deep  with 
a  sense  of  mystery.  To-day  the  actual 
perils  of  rocks  and  rapids  would  be  just 
the  same,  but  at  least  a  voyager  would 
have  maps  and  charts  to  refer  to;  he 
would  know  what  he  might  expect  to  find 
around  the  next  turn  in  the  channel. 
But,  when  Powell  and  his  men  went 
through  in  1869,  they  had  absolutely  no 
certain  knowledge  of  what  perils  might 
at  any  hour  lie  before  them.  Shooting 
swift  rapids  away  down  at  the  bottom  of 
a  narrow  gorge,  where  they  had  to  look 
up  a  vertical  mile  to  see  the  edge  of  the 
precipitous  banks  towering  over  their 
heads,  anything  might  be  lying  in  wait  for 
them  at  the  next  bend  in  the  stream.  It 
might  any  hour  come  about  that  they 
would  reach  a  place  where  the  falls  would 
be  too  high  to  be  passed,  where  the  cliffs 
at  the  side  would  be  too  sheer  and  smooth 
to  be  climbed,  and  yet  where  the  current 
would  be  too  swift  to  allow  any  possibility 
of  turning  back ! 


of  Arizona  25 

The  consciousness  of  all  this  fills  an 
entry  in  Major  Powell's  diary  (August 

I3th) : 

"  We  have  an  unknown  distance  yet 
to  run,  an  unknown  river  to  explore. 
What  falls  there  are,  we  know  not ;  what 
rocks  beset  the  channel,  we  know  not; 
what  walls  rise  over  the  river,  we  know 
not.  Ah,  well !  we  may  conjecture  many 
things !  The  men  talk  as  cheerfully  as 
ever;  jests  are  bandied  about  freely  this 
morning;  but  to  me  the  cheer  is  sombre 
and  the  jests  are  ghastly." 

Major  Powell's  account  of  the  journey, 
with  his  scientific  observations  made  on 
the  way,  was  published  by  the  United 
States  Government  at  Washington.  He 
wrote  a  graphic  account  of  the  trip  for 
Scribner's  Magazine  (1874),  and  a 
popular  volume  by  him,  called  The 
Canyons  of  the  Colorado  was  published 
in  1895,  by  the  Chautauqua  Century 
Press.  The  volumes  in  question  are  full 
of  thrilling  adventures. 

This  is  the  sort  of  thing  the  men  of  the 
expedition  were  continually  having  to  do : 

"We  land  and  stop  for  an  hour  or  two 
to  examine  the  fall.  It  seems  possible  to 
let  down  with  lines,  at  least  part  of  the 
way,  from  point  to  point,  along  the  right- 
hand  wall.  So  we  make  a  portage  over 
the  first  rocks  and  find  footing  on  some 
boulders  below.  Then  we  let  down  one 


26  The  Grand  Canon 

of  the  boats  to  the  end  of  her  line,  when 
she  reaches  a  corner  of  the  projecting 
rock,  to  which  one  of  the  men  clings  and 
steadies  her  while  I  examine  an  eddy  be- 
low. Some  of  the  men  take  a  line  of  the 
little  boat  and  let  it  drift  down  against 
another  projecting  angle.  Here  is  a  shelf 
on  which  a  man  from  my  boat  climbs  and 
a  shorter  line  is  passed  to  him  and  he 
fastens  the  boat  to  the  side  of  the  cliff. 
Then  the  second  one  is  let  down,  bring- 
ing the  line  of  the  third.  When  the  sec- 
ond boat  is  tied  up,  the  two  men  stand- 
ing on  the  beach  above  spring  into  the 
last  boat.  Then  we  let  down  the  boats 
for  twenty-five  or  thirty  yards,  by  walk- 
ing along  the  shelf,  landing  them  again 
in  the  mouth  of  a  side  canyon.  Just  be- 
low this  there  is  another  pile  of  boulders, 
over  which  we  make  another  portage. 
From  the  foot  of  these  rocks  we  can 
climb  to  another  shelf,  forty  or  fifty  feet 
above  the  water.  On  this  bench  we  camp 
for  the  night.  We  find  a  few  sticks 
which  have  lodged  in  the  rocks.  It  is 
raining  hard  and  we  have  no  shelter,  but 
we  kindle  a  fire  and  have  our  supper. 
We  sit  on  the  rocks  all  night,  wrapped  in 
our  ponchos,  getting  what  sleep  we  can." 
In  order  to  gain  any  foothold  at  all 
in  some  parts  of  the  rocky  walls,  where 
they  absolutely  must  crawl  and  lead  the 


of  Arizona  27 

boats,  it  was  many  times  necessary  for 
one  man  to  brace  himself  on  the  deck  of 
a  boat  and  let  another,  carrying  a  line, 
climb  upon  his  shoulders  to  get  the  first 
secure  standpoint.  Several  times  they 
had  to  explore  side  canons  in  search  of 
fallen  trees  from  which  to  make  new 
oars — oars  were  always  getting  broken 
against  the  rocks.  Sometimes  they 
climbed  far,  far  up  the  cliffs  and  terraces 
to  get  from  the  scrubby  pifion  trees  pitch 
for  re-calking  the  seams  of  the  boats. 
Once  Major  Powell  carried  a  load  of 
pitch  down  to  the  boats  in  his  shirt 
sleeves,  which  he  cut  off  to  form  impro- 
vised sacks.  Another  time  he  reached  a 
shelf  on  the  side  of  a  precipice  from 
which  it  was  impossible  to  move  either  up 
or  down.  (Major  Powell,  by  the  way,  had 
lost  his  right  forearm  at  Shiloh,  but  a  tri- 
fle like  that  did  not  lessen  his  readiness  for 
this  sort  of  scramble!)  After  much  dif- 
ficulty, one  of  the  other  men  came  to  the 
rescue,  doffing  his  drawers  and  using 
their  length  like  a  rope  to  haul  the  leader 
up  to  safety!  Over  and  over  different 
members  of  the  party  were  washed  from 
their  boats  or  hurled  out  when  a  boat 
capsized. 

PowelFs  second  expedition  was  made 
in  1871-72  with  a  party  including 
topographers,  photographers,  and  geologi- 


28  Tht  Grand  Canon 

cal  experts.  The  adventures  of  the  sec- 
ond expedition  are  graphically  recounted 
in  Dellenbaugh's  Romance  of  the  Colo- 
rado River,  previously  referred  to,  Mr. 
Dellenbaugh  having  been  personally  one 
of  the  second  exploring  party.  Its  re- 
sult was  the  accumulation  of  a  quantity 
of  accurate  scientific  observations,  of 
great  value  in  any  systematic  study  of  the 
geologic  history  of  the  continent.  An- 
other result,  following  close  upon  these 
scientific  researches,  was  the  awakening 
of  wide  and  enthusiastic  interest  in  the 
canon  on  the  part  of  the  travelling  and 
reading  public.  Since  the  publication  of 
Major  Powell's  reports  thousands  of 
other  observers  have  come,  some  looking 
into  the  great  gulf  with  the  gaze  of  the 
scientist,  some  with  the  artist's  "  inward 
eye/'  keen  to  appreciate  the  miraculous, 
overwhelming  beauty  of  it  all,  in  form 
and  light-and-shade  and  color. 

"  An  inferno,  swathed  in  soft,  celes- 
tial fires;  a  whole,  chaotic  under-world, 
just  emptied  of  primeval  floods  and  wait- 
ing for  a  new  creative  word ;  eluding  all 
sense  of  perspective  or  dimension,  out- 
stretching the  faculty  of  measurement, 
overlapping  the  confines  of  definite  appre- 
hension; a  boding,  terrible  thing,  un- 
flinchingly real,  yet  spectral  as  a  dream/'* 
*  C.  A.  Higgins. 


of  Arizona 


BOOKS  TO  READ 

For  the  scientific  facts  of  the  region,  see  : — 

J.  W.  Powell  : —  Canyons  of  the  Colorado. 

C.  E.  Button  :—  Tertiary  History  of  the  Grand 
Canon. 

F.  S.  Dellenbaugh  : — Romance  of  the  Colorado 
River. 

George  Wharton  James  : — In  and  Around  the 
Grand  Canyon. 

See  also  general  works  like 

N.  S.  Shaler:—  The  Story  of  Our  Continent. 

For  stories  of  the  exploration  of  the  region,  see: 

J.  W.  Powell: — Volume  quoted  above. 

F.  S.  Dellenbaugh: — Volume  quoted  above. 

George  Parker  Winship: — The  Journey  of  Cor  on- 
ado,  the  First  Explorer  of  the  West  (translation  of 
Castaneda). 

For  specially  appreciative  comments,  see: 
Charles  Dudley  Warner: — Our  Italy. 
Harriet  Monroe: — Article  in  Atlantic  Monthly, 
Dec.,  1899. 

For  interesting  accounts  of  Indian  life  in  this 
region,  see: 

F.  S.  Dellenbaugh: — North  Americans  of  Yester- 
day. 

G.  A.  Dorsey: — Indians  of  the  Southwest. 
George  Wharton  James: — Volume  quoted  above, 

and  Indians  of  the  Painted  Desert  Region. 


The  Grand  Canon 


METHODS 

Always  sit  so  that  a  strong,  steady 
light  falls  on  the  face  of  the  stereograph. 
It  is  a  good  plan  to  let  the  light  come 
from  over  your  shoulder. 

Hold  the  hood  of  the  stereoscope  close 
against  the  forehead,  shutting  out  all 
sight  of  your  immediate  surroundings. 

Move  the  sliding  rack,  with  the  stereo- 
graph, along  the  shaft  until  you  find  the 
distance  best  suited  to  your  own  eyes. 
This  varies  greatly  with  different  people. 

Read  what  is  said  of  each  place  in  this 
book. 

Refer  to  the  map  and  know  exactly 
where  you  are  in  each  case. 

Read  the  explanatory  comments  print- 
ed on  the  back  of  each  stereograph 
mount. 

Go  slowly.    Do  not  hurry. 

Go  again — and  yet  again. 

Think  it  over. 

Read  all  the  first-class  books  and  maga- 
zine articles  that  you  can  find  bearing  on 
the  subject  of  the  Canon. 


of  Arizona 


SEEING  THE  GRAND  CANON 

Eleven  hundred  miles  west  of  Kansas 
City  the  Santa  Fe  Railroad  takes  you 
over  the  line  into  Arizona.  It  is  a  high, 
dry,  barren  land  through  which  the  train 
speeds,  yet  not  vacant  but  full  of  inter- 
est in  its  own  taciturn,  uncompromis- 
ing fashion.  Occasionally  you  get  a  hint 
of  what  a  canon  is  like,  when  the  tracks 
cross  the  gorge  of  some  vanished  river 
and  you  look  down  into  the  bed  where 
torrents  sometime  swept  and  foamed  and 
battled  with  the  ragged  rocks  that  hemmed 
them  in.  One  such  gorge,  worth  a  pause 
in  the  journey,  you  find  in  Canon  Diablo. 
It  is  between  Holbrook  and  Flagstaff. 
There  is  an  Indian  village  near  the  little 
railway  station  and  at  the  train  itself  you 
are  likely  to  see  members  of  the  tribe, 
dignified  and  dirty  and  shrewd  at  a  bar- 
gain, ready  to  sell  baskets  or  blankets, 
perhaps  crude  but  effectively  decorated 
pottery  made  by  the  aboriginal  proprie- 
tors of  this  part  of  the  world. 

The  Canon  itself  is  worth  seeing;  some 
Indian  will  show  you  the  way  to  the  point 
marked  I  on  Map  I,  where  you  get  a 


32  The  Grand  Cafwn 

fine  view  both  of  the  gorge  and  of  the 
railroad  which  spans  it. 

i.  A  Wonder  to  the  Primitive  Inhabitants 
— Santa  F£  train  crossing  Canon 
Diablo. 

You  are  on  the  northeast  side  of  the 
track;  that  train  is  going  towards  Flag- 
staff, thirty  miles  away  at  the  west.  The 
cliffs  on  either  side  are  chiefly  of  lime- 
stone. It  is  the  Arizona  "  sage  brush  " 
that  you  see  growing  down  here  in  the 
trough  of  the  valley,  where  it  gets  the 
benefit  of  such  water  as  there  is. 

The  bridge  up  yonder  is  540  feet  long 
and  222  feet  high  where  it  spans  the  low- 
est part  of  the  narrow  valley. 

It  is  amazing  to  see,  out  here  in  Ari- 
zona, how  much  can  be  made  out  of  the 
slender  possibilities  of  a  gulley  like  this 
as  a  help  to  subsistence.  The  Navajo 
and  the  other  Indians  here  in  northeast 
Arizona  somehow  manage  to  keep  sheep 
alive  on  the  scanty  grass  in  canons  like 
this ;  they  induce  corn  and  beans  to  grow 
in  such  places  (the  corn  is  a  dwarf  kind 
but  of  good  quality),  and  so  they  secure 
a  passable  sort  of  subsistence  where  all 
appears  to  be  an  almost  hopeless  desert.* 

Two  convenient  ways  of  reaching  the 
Grand  Canon  are  open  to  the  traveller 

*  G.  A.  Dorsey  :  Indians  of  the  Southwest. 


of  Arizona  33 

who  comes  from  Santa  Fe  (or  from  the 
west)  by  rail.  He  can  leave  the  train  at 
Flagstaff  and  go  across-country,  sev- 
enty-three miles,  by  stage  or  on  horse- 
back. He  can  leave  the  main  line  at 
Williams,  thirty-six  miles  farther  west 
on  the  Santa  Fe  road,  and  there  change 
to  another  train  on  a  spur  track,  which 
will  take  him  almost  to  the  rim  of  the 
canon  (sixty-five  miles).  The  latter  is 
the  easier  route,  the  former  the  more  in- 
teresting. Suppose  you  follow  the  Flag- 
staff route.* 

The  first  thirty-five  miles  of  the  jour- 
ney take  you  past  the  huge,  clustered 
peaks  of  the  San  Francisco  mountains, 
north  of  town  and  railroad,  and  through 
a  great  Government  reservation  of  coco- 
nino  pines.  Look  back  at  the  mountains 
from  one  of  the  lesser  heights  twenty 
miles  farther  toward  the  north. 

2.  From  Red  to  San  Francisco  Moun- 
tains— a  woody  wilderness  in  sun- 
kissed  Arizona. 

You  are  facing  southeast  towards  the 
railroad  thirty  miles  away.  Canon  Diablo 

*  There  are  interesting  side-trips  that  might  be 
made  from  Flagstaff,  e.g.,  out  to  Walnut  Canon, 
eight  miles  southeast,  where  there  are  still  standing 
the  stone-built  houses  of  some  ancient  race,  aban- 
doned centuries  ago. 


34  The  Grand  Canon 

is  ahead  and  off  at  your  left,  between 
forty  and  fifty  miles  distant. 

A  few  years  ago,  cattle,  horses  and 
sheep  were  raised  in  this  vicinity,  but 
since  the  Government  appropriated  great 
stretches  of  land  for  a  national  reserve 
that  business  has  been  spoiled.  The  cat- 
tle you  see  now  are  only  a  few  stray  head 
strolling  up  here  for  water.  You  are 
standing  now  on  the  lower  slope  of  an 
extinct  volcano,  but,  curiously  enough, 
the  only  good  spring  of  water  for  miles 
and  miles  is  up  here  (a  little  way  behind 
you)  in  the  burnt-out  crater  where  fiery 
lava  used  to  flow  long  centuries  ago. 

A  few  miles  over  beyond  Slate  Moun- 
tain— that  wooded  height  at  your  right — 
there  is  just  one  solitary  cabin,  fifteen 
miles  from  anywhere  and  anybody,  the 
home  of  a  man  who  used  to  be  a  cattle- 
raiser.  Now  he  has  taken  to  gold-min- 
ing. His  log-cabin  is  not  much  to  look 
at,  but  its  pioneer  hospitality  offers  the 
chance  traveller  a  share  of  whatever  the 
owner  has,  and  a  night  there  makes  an 
interesting  experience. 

Those  snow-streaked  mountains  are 
even  higher  than  they  look  from  here. 
The  main  summit  is  fully  6,000  feet,  i.  e., 
more  than  a  mile,  above  the  plateau,  and 
the  plateau  itself  is  a  strong  6,000  feet 
above  the  sea-level.  The  uppermost 


of  Arizona  35 

peaks  (12,750  feet)  stand  actually  as 
high  as  many  of  the  splendid  giants  of 
the  Bernese  Alps,  and  even  in  midsum- 
mer those  snow-banks  are  often  a  mile 
long  and  hundreds  of  feet  wide.  The 
San  Francisco  group  can  be  seen  from  a 
distance  of  a  hundred  miles  in  almost  any 
direction  in  this  part  of  Arizona.  There 
is  a  fairly  good  mountain  road  now  lead- 
ing up  to  the  summit  from  Flagstaff,  ten 
miles  away.  What  gives  that  group  yon- 
der peculiar  interest  for  the  geologist  is 
the  fact  that  they  were  once  the  chimney- 
stacks  of  a  volcano ;  those  rock  ridges 
that  show  dark  between  the  hollows  filled 
with  everlasting  snow  are  lava-rocks,  and 
at  the  top  the  crater  sleeps  to-day,  cold 
and  dead. 

But  just  turn  about  from  this  very  spot 
and  you  can  see  for  yourself  the  silent, 
passive  form  of  another  volcano — the  one 
from  whose  slopes  you  have  been  looking 
off.  (Find  the  standpoint,  marked  3,  on 
the  map.) 

3.  Blown  Asunder  by  Volcanic  Energies; 
Red  Mountain,  an  Extinct  Volcano. 

The  country  all  about  here  bears  its 
dramatic  history  written  on  its  face.  The 
fiery  past  of  this  bit  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face is  something  unmistakable — those 


36  The  Grand  Canon 

curiously  shaped,  wave-like  rocks  of 
reddish-gray  are  all  lava-ash ;  that  steep 
slope  of  nearly  black  sand  just  at  this 
side  of  the  cliffs  is  a  slippery  mass  of  an- 
cient cinders.  The  mountain  itself  is  just 
a  bulging  bit  of  the  earth's  crust,  pushed 
up  and  then  torn  open  ages  ago  by  tu- 
multuous fiery  masses  below,  and  left 
(when  the  fires  cooled  down)  all  en- 
crusted with  ashes  and  solidified  drip- 
pings, where  Mother  Nature's  caldron 
had  boiled  over.  Since  the  time  when  this 
was  an  active  volcano  the  whole  region 
has  been  submerged  and  worn  by  run- 
ning water.  The  queer  shapes  you  see 
are  all  partly  the  effect  of  the  water's  ac- 
tion. 

It  is  just  ahead  at  the  left,  beyond  the 
sage-brush  and  those  trees,  where  the  cat- 
tle you  lately  saw  were  going  for  water — 
all  sorts  of  wild  creatures  resort  there, 
too — foxes  and  wolves,  antelope,  even 
ponderous  bears  with  feet  that  leave 
huge  tracks  in  the  muddy  ground  about 
the  cool  spring. 

Would  you  like  to  see  those  lava-ridges 
more  clearly?  They  are  curious  forma- 
tions, well  worth  some  study  even  in  this 
land  full  of  wonders. 

You  will  find  standpoint  No.  4  also  lo- 
cated on  the  map. 


of  Arizona  37 

4.  Labyrinthine  Ways  Through  the  Lava- 
ash  Formation,  Red  Mountain  crater. 

There  is  hardly  a  place  in  the  world 
where  you  can  see  so  plainly  as  here  in 
northwestern  Arizona  just  how  primeval 
forces  worked  with  fire  and  with  water  to 
make  out  of  a  (comparatively)  thin- 
skinned  planet  the  world  that  we  know. 
Over  at  the  Canon  you  will  see  the 
mighty  work  of  water,  wind  and 
weather.  Here  you  see  all  around  you 
towering  walls  and  piles  of  stuff  that 
must  have  been  at  inconceivably  furious 
heat  when  it  was  blown  out  of  the  crater's 
mouth  in  some  frightful  explosion  of  far, 
far-off  ages.  Its  material  is  that  of  the 
inner  core  of  the  earth,  torn  into  fine  bits 
by  the  rage  of  superheated  steam  or  im- 
prisoned gases,  the  moment  that  an  out- 
let was  gained  into  upper  air,  and  after- 
wards compressed  into  the  form  of  rather 
porous  rock,  by  the  accumulation  of  its 
own  mass. 

You  could  wander  and  clamber  about 
here  for  hours  among  these  weird  walls 
and  towers.  One  extraordinary  fact 
about  the  place  is  the  way  in  which  the 
porous  walls  deaden  sounds — they  seem 
to  absorb  and  destroy  such  vibrations. 
Two  people  at  opposite  sides  of  one  of 
these  thirty-foot  screens  could  not  shout 


38  The  Grand  Canon 

loud  enough  to  make  themselves  heard 
by  each  other. 

But  now  for  the  Canon  itself,  twenty 
miles  away. 

The  approach  to  almost  any  one  of  the 
best-known  points  on  the  southern  rim 
gives  you  practically  no  hint  of  what  you 
are  about  to  see.  You  walk  forward — 
and  suddenly  you  can  move  no  farther. 
You  have  reached  the  end  of  the  world ! 

5.  "  The  Sinuous  Colorado,  Yellow  as  the 
Tiber,"  North  from  Bissell's  Point.* 

You  see  about  forty  miles  up-river; 
that  farther  horizon  is  a  part  of  the  fa- 
mous Painted  Desert. 

Distances  and  dimensions  baffle  the 
judgment  here.  It  takes  time  to  adjust 
the  imagination  to  the  gigantic  scale  on 
which  nature  has  worked.  You  see  those 
sculptured  buttes  over  on  the  northwest 
side  of  the  river — if  the  San  Francisco 
mountains  could  be  plucked  up  from  the 
plateau  behind  you  and  set  here  in  their 
place  you  would  know  the  difference  only 
by  their  shape ;  the  summits  would  hardly 
reach  the  level  of  the  bank  where  you 
stand.  If  Niagara  were  pouring  down 

*  You  will  find  this  exact  spot  marked  on  the 
map,  the  red  V  lines  showing  the  area  over  which 
you  look. 


of  Arizona  39 

over  one  of  those  terraces  you  would 
have  to  search  with  a  good  field-glass  to 
find  it.  You  could  hardly  believe  it  any 
more  than  a  mountain  brook.  The  Canon 
of  the  Yellowstone  and  famous  Yosemite 
Valley,  grand  as  they  are  in  their  own 
corners  of  the  earth,  would  here  be  lost 
in  a  multitude  of  canons  and  valleys  far 
bigger  and  deeper  and  longer. 

The  color  that  envelops  all  this  over- 
whelming grandeur  is  something  in  itself 
as  marvellous  as  the  rock-sculpture.  The 
cliffs  over  yonder  are  grayish-white,  yel- 
low, pink,  dull  red ;  the  shadows  take  on 
the  most  beautiful,  softly  glowing  hues 
of  amethyst  and  violet  and  purple.  On 
some  of  those  more  gently  sloping  ter- 
races, where  debris  from  the  cliffs  above 
have  given  vegetation  a  chance  to  start, 
you  get  the  green  of  scrubby  pinon  trees, 
like  these  just  below  your  feet,  and  the 
smoky,  dusty  green  of  sage-brush,  yucca, 
cactus  and  such  forms  of  plant-life  as 
have  the  courage  to  start  here.  The  gor- 
geously magnificent  effect  of  the  whole  is 
something  that  cannot  be  described  but 
can  be  imagined. 

Turn  once  more  to  the  map,  and  you 
will  see  dotted  lines  marking  the  course  of 
the  old  Red  Canon  trail  downward  from 
a  place  on  the  rim  a  little  south  of  Bis- 


40  The  Grand  Canon 

sel's  Point.  Part  way  down  that  trail 
you  find  a  point  marked  6,  from  which 
diverging  lines  reach  out  to  the  rim  at 
the  northwest.  Notice  particularly  that 
the  red  lines  end  at  the  opposite  rim — 
they  show  that  you  see  just  to  the  farther 
brink  of  the  river,  but  that  only  the  sides 
of  the  canon  can  possibly  be  in  sight — 
nothing  beyond  nor  above. 

6.  Among  the  Buttes,  Red  Canon  Trail. 

Is  it  not  a  surprise  to  find  how  ab- 
ruptly the  rocks  make  a  straight,  sheer 
descent  below  your  feet  to  that  sloping 
terrace?  The  horse  is  a  sure-footed 
beast  and  can  be  trusted  to  take  care  of 
himself  even  on  the  edge  of  that  dizzy 
shelf  where  he  waits  for  his  mistress.  It 
is  a  tempting  and  yet  baffling  opportunity 
for  anybody  who  ever  tries  to  sketch 
landscape  effects.  Some  of  Thomas  Mo- 
ran's  best  work  about  the  canon  was  done 
at  a  point  just  behind  and  above  you 
(half  a  mile  overhead!)  on  the  rim. 

You  understand,  of  course,  that  this  is 
only  a  comparatively  short  distance  down 
into  the  canon's  depth — perhaps  2,000 
feet  below  the  brink,  though  the  trail, 
doubling  and  twisting  and  winding  and 
zigzagging,  covered  several  miles  in  or- 
der to  reach  even  this  point.  It  makes  a 


of  Arizona  41 

cen-mile  journey  between  the  rim  and 
the  river  a  mile  below  the  rim !  That  omi- 
nous, dark  hollow  beyond  the  sunny  edge 
of  the  terrace  down  there  is  the  opening 
of  the  lower  gorge.  Below  that  edge  of 
the  terrace  the  cliffs  go  down  almost 
straight  a  half  mile  towards  the  heart  of 
the  earth,  before  they  wall  in  the  river 
as  it  rushes  by  towards  the  southwest 
(left). 

Now  return  to  the  normal  level  and 
move  still  a  little  farther  west  to  the 
place  on  the  rim  which  the  map  calls 
Hance's  Cove.  It  is  named  for  Captain 
John  Hance,  the  veteran  guide  to  the 
Canon ;  he  came  here  in  1883  on  a  pros- 
pecting tour,  and  was  so  impressed  by 
the  awful  beauty  of  the  place  that  he  has 
never  gone  away,  but  lives  here  yet  with 
his  cattle  and  his  favorite  pipe  and  his 
dreams  about  gold  mines  of  inconceiv- 
able richness  down  somewhere  in  the  bed 
of  the  river  below.  Every  fall  he  goes 
down  into  the  canon  to  spend  the  winter ; 
he  descends  about  6,000  feet  to  a  point 
where  the  cattle  can  live  on  the  terrace 
growth  of  sage-brush,  and  there  he 
pitches  a  tent  and  lives  with  the  winds 
and  the  snows  and  the  raging  waters  for 
company. 

ground  near  the  rim  slopes  up- 


42  The  Grand  Canon 

ward  toward  the  very  brink  at  this  point, 
so  it  happens  again  that,  a  few  rods  away 
from  the  edge,  you  see  not  the  slightest 
intimation  of  the  presence  of  any  gorge. 
Looking  from  Hance's  cabin,  for  in- 
stance, there  is  no  sign  of  the  proximity 
of  any  great  sight,  for  a  gentle  rise  in 
the  ground  cuts  off  every  distant  view. 
But  when  you  climb  that  rise  of  ground 
this  is  what  bursts  upon  your  sight : 

7.  Fathoming  the  Depths  of  a  Vanished 
Sea — Grand  Canon  of  Arizona  from 
Hance's  Cove.* 

The  stream  you  see  down  below  is  only 
a  tributary  of  the  Colorado ;  this  nearest 
gorge,  mighty  as  it  yawns  under  your 
feet,  is  only  one  of  a  hundred  side 
canons.  The  Colorado  itself  is  flowing 
by,  beyond  these  buttes  at  the  right,  and 
beyond  where  that  nearly  level  terrace 
stands  out  in  a  projecting  point  above  the 
farther  reach  of  the  creek. 

A  glimpse  like  this,  where  you  see  a 
canon  wall  in  profile,  helps  a  good  deal 
towards  realizing  the  stupendous  facts  of 
those  titanic  rock-sculptures  you  see  over 
opposite.  You  observe  how  the  river 
channel  has  gradually  narrowed  as  it 

*  Be  sure  to  refer  again  to  the  map  in  order  to 
have  your  standpoint  and  range  of  view  clearly  and 
accurately  in  mind. 


of  Arizona  43 

deepened,  the  upper  banks  being  worn 
away  by  wind  and  frost  and  pouring  rain 
even  after  the  river  had  gone  off  and  left 
them,  so  that  the  space  between  the  banks 
grew  wider  and  wider  with  time.  That 
magnificent  butte  over  in  the  north  side 
of  the  river  (Vishnu  Temple)  is  really 
some  distance  this  side  of — as  well  as  be- 
low— the  rim.  It  is  part  of  one  of  the 
ancient  terraces  which  for  some  reason 
stood  the  waters'  wear  and  tear  more  ob- 
stinately than  the  neighboring  rock. 

You  can  see  very  plainly  in  this  side 
canon  the  stratification  of  the  rocks 
whose  material  was  first  deposited  as 
mud  in  an  ocean  bed,  then  compressed 
into  solid  rock,  and  later  pushed  up  out 
of  the  sea  to  meet  the  grinding  cut  of  the 
old  outlet  of  the  vanished  inland  sea.* 

The  glimpses  of  the  river  that  one  gets 
from  the  rim  are  tantalizing.  To  see  a 
river  a  mile  away,  and  know  one  will 
have  to  travel  perhaps  ten  miles  to  reach 
it,  gives  the  stream  a  certain  unique  fas- 
cination. A  number  of  trails,  more  or 
less  good,  have  been  cleared  and  built  at 
different  parts  of  the  Canon  on  this  side ; 
there  used  to  be  one  leading  down  from 
Hance's  Cove,  but  it  has  been  so  washed 
by  storms  as  to  be  nearly  impassable. 
One  of  the  favorites  at  present  is  the 
*  See  introductory  chapter. 


44  The  Grand  Cation 

"  Grand  View."  Now  take  your  stand 
on  that  trail,  where  you  see  the  encircled 
8  on  the  map.  You  will  meet  other 
travellers  coming  down  the  steep  path 
over  the  broken  ledges. 

8.  Descending  Grand  View  Trail. 

It  makes  one  feel  like  hugging  the  wall 
on  the  left !  The  rim  is  some  twelve  hun- 
dred feet  above  your  head  (over  twice 
the  height  of  the  Washington  Monu- 
ment), and  yet  the  river  is  more  than 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  still  farther 
down,  down,  down,  in  the  depths  of  this 
chasm.  Mile  after  mile  of  travelling  like 
this  you  would  have  to  do  before  you 
would  actually  reach  its  waters.  What 
looks  like  the  bottom  of  the  Canon  away 
down  there,  dotted  with  sage  brush  and 
scrubby  little  trees,  is  only  one  of  the 
terraces,  a  somewhat  broader  shelf  on  the 
side  of  the  bank,  such  a  formation  as  you 
saw  in  profile  on  the  buttes  when  you 
looked  down  from  Hance's  Cove  ( Stereo- 
graph 7).  It  is  about  2,000  feet  below 
the  rim. 

(Be  sure  to  notice  how  the  divergent 
lines  run  on  the  map.  Observe  how  they 
indicate  the  way  in  which  your  outlook 
here  is  cut  off  at  the  left  by  this  canon 
wall  and  how  at  the  right  you  see  away 


of  Arizona  45 

off  across  the  whole  width  of  the  canon.) 
That  picturesque  tree  is  one  of  the 
pinons  that  make  themselves  so  much  at 
home  in  odd  corners  of  the  vast  chasm. 
It  was  from  trees  of  this  sort  that  Powell 
gathered  pitch  to  calk  his  boats  during 
that  first  daring  voyage  of  exploration. 

Until  the  branch  railway  was  built 
from  Williams  up  to  the  point  opposite 
Bright  Angel  Creek,  this  was  the  trail 
most  visited  by  tourists.  It  is  still  one 
of  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  trails, 
for  open  terraces  like  the  one  down  below 
give  good  opportunities  to  look  up  and 
down  the  canon.  Part  way  down  there 
is  a  copper  mine,  not  completely  devel- 
oped. 

These  tough  little  burros  are  carrying 
more  than  the  usual  amount  of  baggage, 
for  they  belong  to  a  camping  party.  The 
blankets  and  provisions  cinched  on  their 
sturdy  backs  will  provide  not  exactly 
luxury  but  a  very  satisfactory  sort  of 
comfort  for  anybody  who  enjoys  ad- 
venturous scrambles,  and  who  can  sleep 
with  a  blanket  for  a  pillow  and  the  star- 
lit sky  for  a  roof.  The  reins  left  trail- 
ing on  the  ground  from  that  first  animal's 
head  are  practically  orders  for  him  to 
stand  still  and  wait.  That  is  a  traditional 
part  of  the  technical  training  of  horses 
here  in  the  southwest. 


46  The  Grand  Canon 

These  are  sure-footed  little  beasts,  pretty 
nearly  as  agile  as  goats  in  climbing  up 
and  down  this  crooked  trail — in  places  as 
steep  as  a  narrow  flight  of  old-fashioned 
stairs.  Many  a  time  a  horseman  going 
over  this  path  finds  the  head  and  shoul- 
ders of  his  steed  away  out  over  the  edge 
of  the  cliff,  so  that  he  himself  can  (if  his 
own  head  is  strong  enough)  look  down  a 
thousand  feet  through  absolutely  open 
space!  Sometimes  accidents  do  almost 
happen.  Before  this  very  camping  party 
reached  the  river  one  of  the  horses  did 
somehow  slip  on  one  of  the  steepest  and 
most  dangerous  "  ladders ;"  the  chronicler 
said  afterwards :  "  . . .  The  best  horse  car- 
rying the  best  woman  in  the  world,  fell 
headlong  and  came  near  rolling  over  the 
precipice.  With  the  agility  of  a  feline  the 
lady  leaped  from  the  saddle  and  saved 
herself  and  the  horse.  .  .  .  Oh,  yes, 
*t  was  a  breathless  moment  for  the  writer, 
who  had  no  wish  to  be  a  widower ! " 

Away  down  below  that  terrace  yonder, 
this  same  trail  takes  you  near  some  cu- 
rious caves  discovered  in  1897  by  a  mem- 
ber of  another  camping-party.  You 
leave  your  horse  on  the  trail  and  scramble 
up  a  steep  slope  of  limestone.  After  a 
few  rods  progress  inside  the  cavern  all 
is  black  darkness — you  see  nothing  at  all. 


of  Arizona  47 

Then,  if  you  have  apparatus  for  produc- 
ing a  flashlight — behold!  This  is  what 
the  light  discloses : 


9.  Dendritic  Stalagmites  in  a  Limestone 
Cave. 

All  these  exquisite  shapes  have,  you 
understand,  been  formed  by  the  slow  drip, 
drip,  dripping  of  water  heavily  charged 
with  lime ;  the  water  long  ago  evaporated, 
leaving  behind  this  mineral  stuff  which  it 
had  held  in  solution. 

That  opening  ahead  is,  perhaps,  eight 
or  ten  feet  high ;  you  could  follow  the 
queer,  hollow  corridor  on  and  on  for 
nearly  an  eighth  of  a  mile  into  the  heart 
of  the  cliff.  There  is  another  cavern 
much  like  it  not  far  away. 

Again  the  trail  leads  down,  down,  and 
farther  down.  Below  the  limestone  caves 
is  another  terrace — a  broad,  irregular 
shelf  of  rock;  a  good  deal  like  the  one 
on  which  you  gazed  from  that  dizzy 
perch  where  the  burros  were  descending 
(Stereograph  8).  Down  on  the  lower 
plateau  there  is  a  famous  spring — famous 
partly  because  the  water  is  really  good 
a!nd  abundant,  and  partly  because  it  is  the 
only  spring  for  miles  and  miles.  Find 
the  tenth  standpoint  on  the  map.  You 


48  The  Grand  Canon 

will  find  the  divergent  red  lines  promise 
you  a  long  outlook  off  toward  the  left, 
though  the  outlook  at  the  right  appears 
to  be  cut  off  by  some  obstacle. 

10.  Angels'  Gateway  and  Newberry  Ter- 
race from  Cottonwood  Spring. 

You  remember  you  are  facing  nearly 
north.  It  seems  as  if  those  towering 
heights  must  be  mountain  walls,  but  you 
know  the  fact  is  that  they  are  only  parts 
of  the  river  banks ;  though  the  vertical 
distances  you  see  are  so  enormous,  almost 
overwhelming  in  their  dignified  grandeur, 
yet  even  now  you  do  not  see  quite  up  to 
the  rim,  and  you  see  by  no  means  down 
to  the  bed  of  the  river.  The  Colorado  is 
more  than  1,200  feet  below  this  plateau 
where  you  stand  now ! 

The  enormous  heights  and  depths  of 
this  place  grow  upon  the  mind  by  de- 
grees. At  first  they  are  too  vast  for 
belief.  After  a  while  you  become  grad- 
ually able  to  realize  the  meaning  of  statis- 
tical facts  and  figures. 

Quite  the  opposite  of  modern  statistical 
interpretation  is  the  old  Pi-Ute  tradition 
about  that  Gateway.  This  is  the  story  as 
Major  Powell  heard  it  years  ago: 

"  Long  ago  there  was  a  great  and  wise 
chief  who  mourned  the  death  of  his  wife, 


of  Arizona  49 

and  would  not  be  comforted  till  Ta- 
vwoats,  one  of  the  Indian  gods,  came  to 
him  and  told  him  she  was  in  a  happier 
land,  and  offered  to  take  him  there  that 
he  might  see  her  himself,  if  upon  his 
return  he  would  cease  to  mourn.  The 
great  chief  promised.  Then  Ta-vwoats 
made  a  trail  through  the  mountains  that 
intervene  between  that  beautiful  land,  the 
balmy  region  in  the  Great  West,  and  this 
the  desert  home  of  the  poor  Nu-ma. 
This  trail  was  the  canon  gorge  of  the 
Colorado.  Through  it  he  led  him,  and, 
when  they  had  returned,  the  deity  ex- 
acted from  the  chief  a  promise  that  he 
would  tell  no  one  of  the  joys  of  that  land, 
lest  through  discontent  with  the  circum- 
stances of  this  world,  they  should  desire 
to  go  to  heaven.  Then  he  rolled  a  river 
into  the  gorge,  a  mad,  raging  stream,  that 
should  engulf  any  that  might  attempt  to 
enter  thereby." 

Pi-Ute  tradition  says  that  sometime 
the  high  gods  (Those  Above)  will  re- 
turn to  take  all  the  Indian  people  into  the 
blessed  regions,  and  that  when  they  do 
come  they  will  appear  through  that  gate- 
way! 

The  trail  oftenest  followed  down  by 
tourists  is  the  "  Bright  Angel,"  named, 
like  the  hotel,  for  a  creek  entering  the 
Colorado  at  that  point  in  its  course, 


50  The  Grand  Canon 

through  a  canon  over  on  the  opposite 
(north)  side.  The  creek  was  named  by 
Powell's  exploring  party  in  enthusiastic 
appreciation  of  the  quality  of  the  water, 
enthusiasm  made  the  heartier  because  of 
a  previous  disappointment  when  one  of 
the  men  had  described  a  certain  other 
tributary  as  a  "  dirty  devil." 

The  descent  of  the  Bright  Angel  trail 
is,  in  general  terms,  much  like  that  of 
the  Grand  View — similar  steep  inclines 
and  overhanging  cliffs,  where  your  head 
begins  to  whirl,  and  perilous  curves  and 
zigzags.  When  you  do  finally  reach  the 
river,  after  miles  on  miles  of  rough,  hard 
travelling,  it  is  hard  to  realize  from  what 
you  see  that  you  are  actually  so  far  down 
in  the  great  chasm. 

Find  standpoint  n  on  the  map.  You 
see  it  is  close  by  the  water's  edge.  No- 
tice that  the  limited  reach  of  the  V  lines 
shows  that  you  cannot  see  quite  up  to 
the  rim — the  intervening  buttes  and  ter- 
races cut  off  a  longer  view.  (If  you  turn 
back  for  a  moment,  say,  to  standpoint  5, 
you  will  readily  understand  how  a  person 
away  down  at  the  water's  edge  might  not 
be  able  to  see  anywhere  near  up  to  the 
actual  rim,  because  the  lower  cliffs  and 
buttes  so  closely  shut  him  in.) 


of  Arizona  51 

ii.  Beside  the  Colorado;  looking  up  to 
Zoroaster  Tower  from  Pipe  Creek. 

Your  outlook  is  northeast  over  this 
sharp  bend  in  the  river.  What  the  depth 
of  the  stream  may  be  at  this  point  one  can 
only  conjecture.  The  boulders,  stones  and 
gravel  that  you  see  alongside  the  stream 
are  fragments  torn  from  the  cliffs  by 
which  the  river  has  swept,  or  bits  torn 
from  the  heights  above  by  rending  frost 
and  pouring,  driving  rain.  Imagine  the 
sudden  fierceness  with  which  the  waters 
of  a  heavy  rain  would  pour  down  into  the 
river  here !  Almost  every  drop  falling 
within  the  area  between  the  widely  sep- 
arated rims  must  quite  soon  reach  this 
hurrying  stream,  for  the  walls,  you  re- 
member, are  almost  all  impenetrable  rock; 
the  only  absorbent  soil  is  the  thin  coating 
on  the  terraces.  In  May  and  June,  when 
the  snows  are  fast  melting  on  the 
Rockies,  the  river  rises  to  its  height;  the 
freshets  then  are  something  tremendous. 

Zoroaster  Tower  is  that  most  conspic- 
uous butte  standing  up  against  the  sky 
from  the  northern  wall.  A  good  many  of 
the  buttes,  you  notice,  have  Oriental 
names;  their  outlandish  beauty  of  form 
so  strongly  suggests  the  conception  of  the 
old  Eastern  architects  that  such  names 
were  given  almost  instinctively  by  early 


52  The  Grand  Cation 

explorers  who  appreciated  their  peculiar 
kind  of  beauty. 

Down  past  these  very  walls  and  fantas- 
tic rock  towers,  round  this  very  bend  in 
the  river,  the  men  of  Powell's  first  ex- 
pedition came  in  1869.  Some  of  their 
most  exciting  adventures  were  met  far- 
ther up  stream,  before  they  reached  this 
particular  point,  but  even  here  there  was 
ominous  mystery  hanging  over  the  way. 
As  they  came  around  that  very  turn  in  the 
stream,  they  could  not  know  but  what 
some  new  danger  might  prove  impossible 
to  avoid,  impossible  to  surmount. 

And  to  think  of  the  journey  these 
waters  themselves  have  made !  Some 
part  of  this  raging,  impetuous  flood  has 
come  away  down  from  the  Wind  River 
Mountains  in  Wyoming.  Some  part  of 
the  waters  that  you  see  now  torn  into 
filmy  bubbles  by  ugly  rocks  underneath 
may  once  have  been  borne  by  the  wind 
in  fleecy  white  clouds  over  the  wide 
reaches  of  Yellowstone  Park,  and 
dropped  in  the  form  of  rain  on  the  giant 
slope  of  Fremont's  Peak,  six  hundred 
miles  away  from  this  scene  of  noisy  haste 
and  turmoil. 

The  river  here  is  perhaps  a  couple  of 
hundred  feet  wide.  It  is  an  interesting 
experience  to  look  at  it  from  different 


of  Arizona  53 

heights,  watching  it  take  the  look  of  a 
smaller  and  smaller  stream  as  you  go 
higher  and  higher  on  your  way  back  up 
to  terra-firma. 

See,  for  instance,  how  it  narrows  to 
the  look  of  a  mere  creek  when  you  are 
only  twelve  hundred  feet  above  the  water 
— considerably  less  than  a  quarter  of  the 
way  lip  to  the  rim. 

12.  Down  the  Granite  Gorge  of  the 
Colorado  (1,200  feet  deep),  from 
Pyrites  Point. 

(Find  this  location  on  the  map.  It  is 
marked  12.) 

Here  you  have  a  chance  to  see  very 
plainly  the  difference  between  the 
primeval  granite  that  walls  in  this  gorge 
below  and  the  stratified  rocks  which 
overlie  and  enwrap  the  granite  core  on 
the  outside.  What  you  see  before  your 
very  eyes  shows,  as  no  amount  of  written 
description  could  show,  the  different 
ways  in  which  running  water  affected  the 
upper  layers  (which  were  really  com- 
pressed and  compacted  masses  of  what 
had  once  been  gravel,  sand  and  mud), 
and  this  lower  mass  of  the  original  core 
of  the  earth. 

Returning  to  the  Bright  Angel  trail, 
your  guides  will  probably  tell  you  of 


54  The  Grand  Canon 

alluring  "  finds  "  of  gold  in  this  part  of 
the  Canon.  Captain  Hance,  the  veteran 
among  Canon  guides,  has  devout,  though 
perhaps  not  well  grounded,  faith  in  the 
existence  of  immense  gold  beds  in  the 
vicinity,  but  they  would  have  to  be  beds 
rich  almost  beyond  men's  dreams  to  make 
their  development  pay,  the  expense  of 
transporting  apparatus  and  supplies 
would  be  so  enormous.  The  finds  so  far 
made  have  not  been  fully  developed.  And 
yet,  the  gold-fever  is  hard  to  cure  when 
it  gets  into  one's  veins ;  any  man  who 
once  catches  it  always  has  his  eyes  open 
and  his  hammer  ready.  See,  for  instance, 
how  a  man  at  work  on  the  construction 
of  the  trail  manages  to  keep  a  sharp  tally 
on  every  possible  indication  of  the  pres- 
ence of  the  precious  stuff. 

13.  Prospecting  for  Gold — Indian  Garden 
Creek. 

This  spot  is  located  like  all  the  others, 
on  the  map.  The  conspicuous  butte  in 
the  distance  is  the  Buddha. 

The  load  carried  by  this  little  burro 
means  "  all  the  comforts  of  home "  to 
a  prospector.  Hot  coffee,  fried  bacon 
and  frying-pan  bread  make  a  meal  more 
tempting  than  those  of  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria,  if  your  appetite  has  been  sharp- 


of  Arizona  55 

ened  by  long  hours  of  climbing  over  the 
rocks  in  this  clear  Arizona  air. 


The  way  down  is  dizzy  and  hard;  the 
way  up  brings  new  impressions  and  new 
experiences.  One  of  the  bewildering 
things  about  the  upward  climb  is  the  fash- 
ion in  which  the  trail  ahead  often  hides 
from  your  view,  almost  making  you  think 
that  there  is  no  trail — that  it  has  vanished 
by  some  bewitchment  of  this  eerie  place 
and  left  you  a  helpless  prisoner  at  the 
foot  of  insurmountable  prison  walls! 
One  such  place  they  call  "  Cape  Horn." 
There  has  been  a  narrow  (Oh,  so  nar- 
row !)  shelf  along  which  to  pick  your  way 
with  careful  steps,  but  just  ahead  a  huge, 
rough  promontory  juts  out  from  the  rest 
of  the  cliff,  and  seems  positively  to  cut 
your  path  quite  off,  with  its  grim  an- 
nouncement of  No  passing.  It  really 
does  look  as  if  the  trail  ended  there  in 
despair,  and  as  if  you  might  just  as  well 
sit  down  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff  and  wait 
for  your  end. 

But,  no!  You  do  not  give  up  and  sit 
down  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff;  you  move 
on,  and  on ;  the  shelf  obligingly  does  con- 
tinue under  your  feet,  and,  when  you 
reach  the  threatening,  bulging  brow  of 
that  forbidding  bulk,  the  trail  just  swings 
itself  around  by  a  sharp  curve  to  the 


56  The  Grand  Canon 

other  side,  and  you  see  steps  and  hope 
ahead ! 

14.  Rounding  Cape  Horn  on  the  Bright 
Angel  Trail.* 

You  can  see  the  steps  or  "  ladder  "  this 
minute — hardly  the  place  for  an  ordinary 
horse,  but  these  animals  have  been  over 
'.his  same  trail  many  times  and  have 
nearly  as  good  judgment  as  their  masters 
with  regard  to  how  to  do  it. 

Cliffs  like  these — sometimes  even 
steeper — Powell  and  his  men  climbed 
every  now  and  then,  fastening  their  boats 
far  below,  and  scaling  the  jutting  crags, 
in  order  to  look  off  up  and  down  the 
stream,  and  so  get  a  sense  of  the  place  as 
one  inclusive  whole.  Fancy  such  a  climb 
in  an  absolutely  trackless,  unknown 
solitude. 

The  location  of  the  hotel  for  tourists 
opposite  the  side  canon  of  Bright  Angel 
Creek  was  a  wise  choice.  The  views 
from  the  rim  close  by  the  Bright  Angel 
hotel  are  wonderfully  beautiful,  and  show 
the  characteristic  aspects  of  the  incredible 
gorge  in  a  particularly  dramatic  way. 

Take  a  look  now  north-northeast  across 
from  a  point  on  the  rim  close  by  the  hotel. 
It  is  from  this  part  of  the  rim  that  most 
*  This  spot  is  located  at  14  on  the  map. 


of  Arizona  57 

tourists  nowadays  get  their  first  impres- 
sions of  the  Canon  as  a  whole.  Stand- 
point 15  (so  marked  on  the  map)  is  the 
exact  spot  from  which  you  are  to  look. 
It  is  a  favorite  resort  of  the  famous 
painter  Thomas  Moran ;  you  have,  indeed, 
a  chance  to  see  him  here  with  one  of  his 
sketch-books  in  hand. 

15.  Thomas  Moran,  America's  greatest 
scenic  artist,  sketching  at  Bright 
Angel  Cove. 

You  see  now  in  close  detail  the  ex- 
traordinary, terraced  architecture  of  one 
of  the  beautiful  buttes.  It  seems  a 
wonder  that  those  tough  little  pifion  trees 
can  find  enough  earth  to  grow  in ;  they 
can,  of  course,  have  no  water  except  what 
falls  directly  on  that  narrowed  summit 
from  showers  passing  over  this  arid  land, 
yet  they  grow  and  thrive. 

That  long,  tapering  trough  over  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  made  by 
those  deep  shadows  grotesquely  like  some 
great  dragon,  is  the  canon  of  Bright 
Angel  Creek.  Pipe  Creek,  from  whose 
mouth  you  looked  up  and  across  to 
Zoroaster  Tower  (  Stereograph  1 1 )  enters 
the  river  almost  opposite  the  "  Bright 
Angel,"  from  this  (south)  side  of  the 
stream. 


58  The  Grand  Canon 

Seeing  the  Canon  in  this  way,  and 
especially  with  this  afternoon  light  mak- 
ing the  hollow  of  Bright  Angel  Canon 
so  significantly  conspicuous,  Dellen- 
baugh's  picturesque  interpretation  of  the 
topography  is  especially  full  of  meaning. 
Refer  right  here  to  the  quotation  on  page 
14  from  his  Romance  of  the  Colorado 
River:  "  The  Grand  Canon  may  be  lik- 
ened to  an  inverted  mountain  range. 
Imagine  a  great  mountain  chain  cast  up- 
side down  in  plaster/'  etc.,  etc. 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  was  one  of 
the  first  writers  who  attempted  to  tell 
people  what  all  this  was  like.  The  Grand 
Canon  chapters  in  his  volume  called  Our 
Italy  are  well  worth  reading. 

"  I  was  continually  likening  this/'  he 
says,  "  to  a  vast  city  rather  than  a  land- 
scape, but  it  was  a  city  of  no  man's  crea- 
tion nor  of  any  man's  conception.  In 
the  visions  which  inspired  or  crazy  pain- 
ters have  had  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  of 
Babylon  the  Great,  of  a  heaven  in  the 
atmosphere  with  endless  perspective  of 
towers  and  steeps  that  hang  in  the  twi- 
light sky,  the  imagination  has  tried  to 
reach  this  reality.  But  here  are  effects 
beyond  the  artist,  this  great  space  is  filled 
with  gigantic  architectural  constructions, 
with  amphitheatres,  gorges,  precipices, 
walls  of  masonry,  fortresses  terraced  up 


of  Arizona  59 

to  the  level  of  the  eye,  temples,  mountain- 
size,  all  brilliant  with  horizontal  lines  of 
color,  streaks  of  solid  hues  a  few  feet  in 
width — yellows,  mingled  white  and  gray, 
orange,  dull  red,  brown,  blue,  carmine, 
green,  all  blending  in  the  sunlight  into 
one  transcendant  suffusion  of  splendor." 

Seeing  the  Canon  through  stereo- 
graphs, you  must  needs  use  not  only 
your  actual  physical  eyes  but  the  eyes  of 
your  imagination,  in  order  to  appreciate 
the  color  effects  which  are  so  marvellous 
a  part  of  its  unspeakable  splendor.  The 
color  glories  of  the  place  are,  perhaps, 
especially  wonderful  near  sunset,  when 
the  sunlight,  striking  almost  horizontally 
through  the  lower  strata  of  the  earth's 
atmosphere,  seems  to  turn  all  the  air  into 
a  softly  glorified  haze  shot  through  and 
through  with  melting  hues.  (Take  stand- 
point 1 6  as  marked  on  the  map.) 

16.  "  Over  All  Broods  a  Solemn  Silence" 
—Sunset  at  O'Neill's  Point. 

One  man  who  looked  upon  a  sight  like 
this  wrote  about  it :  "  The  vision  of  the 
Canon  at  sunset  is  one  of  the  marvels. 
All  its  colors  are  intensified,  and  the  reds 
and  yellows  burn  like  coals.  When  the 
low  sun  gilds  the  red  sandstone  masses, 
oceans  of  rose-flame  sweep  up  the  walls, 


60  The  Grand  Canon 

more  and  more  brilliant  as  they  climb, 
until  the  topmost  thousand  feet  of  the  far- 
ther rim  blaze  with  the  fire  of  hyacinth, 
ruby  and  garnet.  The  splendor  rises  and 
fades  and  is  caught  by  the  vapors  over- 
head." * 

One  of  the  grandest,  broadest  outlooks 
across  the  Canon  can  be  had  from  Rowe's 
Point  a  little  farther  down  river  (west). 
You  do  not  see  from  that  part  of  the  rim 
away  down  to  the  very  waters  of  the 
river,  the  depth  is  too  great  and  the  inter- 
vening buttes  of  ragged  rock  stand  up 
across  the  line  of  vision ;  but  the  terrific 
suddenness  of  the  walls'  descent  makes 
you,  even  when  you  think  yourself  ac- 
customed to  such  things,  catch  your 
breath  with  amazement  and  awe. 

17.  Overlooking  Nature's  Grandest  Am- 
phitheatre— from  Rowe's  Point  to 
Point  Sublime 

That  great,  square-topped  headland 
opposite  is  Point  Sublime.  You  see 
beyond  it  the  broad  opening  of  the  side 
canon  where  Shinumo  Creek  brings 
tributary  waters  down  to  the  river.  Point 
Sublime  is  the  same  headland  that  you 
looked  at  through  the  veil  of  sun-filled 
haze  from  O'NenTs  Point.  See  the  loca- 
tion on  the  map.  (Stereograph  16.) 
*  C.  M.  Skinner  in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle. 


of  Arizona  61 

It  takes  "  nerve  "  to  sit  in  that  non- 
chalant fashion  with  over  a  thousand  feet 
of  empty  space  between  your  swinging 
heels  and  the  ground  below!  The 
Indians  of  this  region,  imaginative  as  they 
all  are,  arid  ingenious  in  the  planning  of 
hideous  terrors  for  a  hated  enemy,  used 
in  old  times  to  put  an  end  to  captives  by 
swinging  them  off  from  a  cliff  a  good 
deal  like  this  one  (Apache  Point),  farther 
down  the  river  on  this  side.  George 
Wharton  James,  who  has  spent  years  in 
intimate,  friendly  association  with  the 
Havasupai,  the  Indians  of  Havasupai 
Canon,  just  off  at  the  west,  learned  from 
them  about  the  horribly  dramatic  custom 
of  the  tribe.  The  Apaches  were  for  cen- 
turies their  enemies  and  many  times 
descended  upon  the  Havasu  villages, 
spreading  destruction  and  murder  in 
their  path.  If  the  Havasupai  were  able 
to  rally  and  lucky  enough  to  capture  their 
invaders,  a  fearful  vengeance  was  taken. 

"  One  method  of  killing  them  was  to 
bring  them  out  to  Apache  Point  where 
there  is  a  frightful  precipice,  and  there, 
one  man  holding  the  prisoner  by  the  hair 
and  the  other  by  his  feet,  calling  upon  all 
the  evil  powers  that  are  supposed  to  lurk 
in  and  about  Chic-a-mi-mi  Hack-a-tai-a 
(the  Grand  Canon),  the  unhappy  wretch 
was  swung  to  and  fro  over  that  awful 


62  The  Grand  Canon 

precipice;  then,  with  a  wild  yell  of 
triumph,  giving  him  a  fierce  swing  out- 
ward, both  captors  loosed  their  hold  on 
the  wretched  Apache."  * 

But  those  days  of  horror  are  over;  no 
gruesome  tragedies  stain  the  Canon  walls 
to-day.  Its  message  to  men  is  one  of  aw- 
ful splendor,  of  solemn  glory,  but  not  of 
terror.  All  men  may  peer  into  the  vast, 
mysterious  deeps  with  the  fearless  gaze 
of  trustful  children. 

18.  On  the  Brink,  one  mile  above  the 
river;  —  northwest  from  Rowe's 
Point. 

Be  sure  to  identify  this  standpoint  as 
well  as  all  the  rest.  The  map  shows  that 
you  are  facing  somewhat  north  of  west. 
Just  below  the  dangling  feet  of  these  little 
folks  yawns  the  opening  of  one  of  the 
smaller  side  canons ;  over  beyond  its  far- 
ther wall  you  have  your  last  look  at  the 
river  flowing  west-north  west  in  its  devious 
onward  way  to  the  Gulf  of  California. 
Those  waters  you  see  far  down  below 
have  been  past  Bissell's  Point  (Stereo- 
graph 5)  ;  they  have  swept  by  the  granite 
base  of  the  gigantic  pedestal  of  Zoroaster 
Tower  (Stereograph  n)  ;  they  have  gone 
tearing  like  mad  through  the  narrow 

*  George  Wharton  James :  In  and  Around  the 
Grand  Canon, 


of  Arizona  63 

granite  gorge  below  Pyrites  Point 
(Stereograph  12).  Still  their  Herculean 
task  is  not  ended.  Farther  yet  stretch  out 
the  long  reaches  of  jagged  walls  and 
ferocious  cliffs  that  are  still  to  be  passed. 

You  are  looking  now  altogether  into 
the  Canon,  not  directing  your  gaze  high 
enough  to  see  an  inch  of  sky  above  the 
bounding  rim.  Again  you  can  trace  the 
layers  of  stratified  rocks,  telling  of  history 
so  far  back  that  it  staggers  the  imagina- 
tion. Again  you  see  where  the  pitiless 
river  has  laid  bare  the  inner  substance 
of  the  earth's  crust. 

And  yet  after  all,  the  river  speaks  here 
not  entirely  of  the  past.  It  speaks  of  the 
future,  too.  Those  waters  you  see  yonder 
are  continuing  the  work  of  their  ancestral 
predecessors,  but  at  the  same  time  they 
are  on  their  way  to  begin  a  new  career. 
Outside  these  prison  walls,  away  off  down 
at  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  California, 
they  will  find  their  freedom  under  new 
skies  and  new  winds.  And  who  knows 
what  winds  may  woo  them  from  the  sea 
and  take  them  sailing  in  misty  cloud? 
Who  knows  where  they  may  go,  or  on 
what  new  mission  in  world-making,  after 
once  they  reach  the  end  of  this  strange 
journey,  when  once  they  find  the  goal  that 
Nature's  inexorable  law  bids  them  seek, 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  vast  Sea  of  Peace  ? 


They  are  so  realistic  and  natural 
that  one  feels  as  if  he  were  beholding 
the  actual  scenery ;  so  realistic  is  the 
scene  made  that  he  obtains  the  inspi- 
ration which  actual  sight  gives. — The 
Hon.  JOHN  L.  BATES,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts. 


The  emotions  awakened  are  the 
same  as  those  aroused  by  looking  at 
the  actual  scene,  differing  only  in 
intensity  and  quantity  from  those 
gained  on  the  spot.  .  .  .  The 
mind  retains  a  consciousness  of  hav- 
ing actually  seen  the  places  examined 
rather  than  of  having  studied  a  pho- 
tograph.— Zions  Herald. 


I  have  recently  gone  through  a 
series  of  stereographs  of  Rome  with 
maps  and  book,  and  although  I  never 
have  actually  visited  Rome,  neverthe- 
less, I  feel  that  I  secured  genuine 
experiences  of  being  in  Rome,  which 
were  as  "real"  as  the  experiences  ob- 
tained in  places  where  I  have  actually 
been. — JAMES  E.  LOUGH,  PH.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Experimental  Psychology^  New 
Tork  University. 

64 


GRAND  CANYON  TOUR,  MAP  NO.  1 


t-atented  U.  S.  A.,  August  21,  luoo. 

Patented  France,  March  26, 1900.     JS.  <V.  I).  < 
Patented  Great  Brttain,  March  22, 1900. 

Switzerland,  c[J3  Patent  Nr.  21,2 

EXPLANATIONS   OF  MAP  SYSTEM. 

(I).  The  re'd  lines  on  this  map  mark  out  the  territory  shown  in  th 
respective  stereographs. 

(2).  The  numbers  in  circles  refer  to  stereographs  corresponi 
ingly  numbered. 

(3>\  The  apex  ^^  or  point  from  which  two  lines  branch  ou 
indicates  the  place  from  which  the  view  was  taken,  viz.,  the  place  fro 
which  we  look  out,  in  the  stereograph,  over  the  territory  between  th 
two  lines.  * 

(4),  The  branching  lines  <C^^  indicate  the  limits  of  tV 
stereographed  scene,  viz. ,  the  limits  of  our  vision  on  the  right  and  ie 
when  looking  at  the  stereograph, 


